Vegan Friendly: PlantBasedPopUp Offers Fine Dining Vegan Wine Pairing Dinners in San Diego County
PlantBasedPopUp partners with top-tiered restaurants to host monthly plant-based wine pairing dinners in San Diego County.
Dually Noted: Pairing Dinner with Classical Music for a Unique Dining Experience
This is Dually Noted, synergizing music and dining into a new experience.
In the shade of a magnolia tree, just as the first course is served—a peach and brie vol-au-vent—the enchanting strains of a quartet makes its way to the tables and diners. The mid-20th-century bassoon piece is lively and fun, and the same can be said of the pastry: A finger food that is savory and tart at the same time. This is Dually Noted, synergizing music and dining into a new experience.
Rebecca Matayoshi established Dually Noted three years ago as a way to create a dining experience in which all the courses are prepared to perfectly complement the music of the evening. “I like food, and I love music,” she says. “This was a way that I could engage my passions.”
To create a Dually Noted event, Matayoshi, a violist with the Hawaii Symphony and an acting section violist with the San Diego Symphony, works with a classical musician who chooses a musical program. The music is then presented to a chef, who creates a meal to reflect the feeling and mood of the pieces chosen for the evening.
This evening, during the main course, the music is for bassoon and prerecorded tape, a piece quite modern and worthy of serious listening. The music zigs and zags, and so does the food. The chef, Yara Lamers, says, “Tonight’s theme is American Summer, so I chose something very American: chicken and gravy. But there were twists and turns with the music, so I threw in some twists and turns with the food. I thought, ‘How can I make you feel a surprise with the food?’ I wanted a familiar American feel, but a new America as well.”
Matayoshi emphasizes the creativity of each Dually Noted event. “A chef may train for years, going to culinary school, working as a sous chef, and wind up working in a restaurant where the menu is already set. Musicians train for years, go to conservatory, and as symphony players don’t choose what they play. This is a chance for musicians to choose the music that they play. And it’s similar for the chefs that we work with.”
Dually Noted occurs on a Monday every other month in an intimate house concert setting. Tickets are also available for those who want to listen to the music without having dinner. The atmosphere is casual and comfortable: Tonight there are plenty of cargo pants and Hawaiian shirts, and no high heels.
Matayoshi takes all of the photos used on the website for Dually Noted, as photography is another one of her passions. The Chicago native knew that she wanted to become a musician when she performed a concerto with her youth orchestra and realized the power that music has to move people. “After the performance, some people told me that they cried,” she says. She landed her first job with an orchestra performing in Osaka, Japan. “The experience helped to show me who I was,” she says. “Here, I’m seen as Asian. There, I was seen as an American.”
Matayoshi says that folks can expect more than great food and music if they attend a Dually Noted event: “They will be immersed in a unique social and sensory experience, meeting people they may have never crossed paths with and absorbing music and food at the highest level. Whether they are familiar with the music and food is less relevant, it’s the manner of presentation that makes it special and memorable.”
See the calendar and buy tickets at duallynoted.org.
Related Stories & Recipes
